ANN POWELL
Interior Decorator, Colour Specialist
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Interior Decorator, Colour Specialist
Not so long ago (wink wink), I was working my way through college at a gas station when an opportunity fell into my lap. My boss asked if I’d be interested in taking over his second location.
What did I do? I seized the chance to be my own boss, of course! And flushed 3 years of college in accounting (which I didn’t love) down the toilet, took the savings I had and became the operator of my first gas station at the ripe age of 22.
What did I do next? I set a goal to purchase my first home by the time I turned 25 and that’s exactly what I did. I moved in the month of my 25th birthday. It’s amazing what happens when you set goals.
This was the early 90’s, so if you are from my generation you will remember what trend we were in. You got it!! Country!! The trend of quaint pastels, pretty borders and busy patterned wallpaper galore.
The house was all blah ‘Builders’ beige except for the kitchen which had a blue border but because I grew up with vibrant colours, that needed my ‘COLOUR FIX’ but I didn’t know where to start.
Plus, I was on an extremely tight budget and there was no wiggle room for costly decorating and purchasing errors.
Looking back, I recognize the obvious mistakes made because of my inexperience, like purchasing an oversized couch and loveseat for the living room. SCALE you say, I had NO idea about that.
As you can imagine, I was SO worried I’d make more big mistakes and waste even more money, I decided to take a leap of faith and hire an Interior Decorator.
These were the results:
But you know what? I was happy and it felt like home.
I was also incredibly relieved the decorator had taken a lot of the stress out of the process, made it all work well together and finished the entire project on budget.
Not to worry though…I eventually moved out of the barn.
The next house was brand new so I had to live with BUILDER’S beige for a year this time because you are not allowed to paint a new build until the year is up.
Needless to say, I was NOT a happy camper. I needed my ‘COLOUR FIX’.
In the meantime, because this house was bigger I bought new furniture for the family room and purchased the right scale this time. YAY me! And the oversized furniture from the other house fit to scale in the living room perfectly.
The year was finally up and I decided to hire an interior decorator again to help me with colours but this time there were no borders or wallpaper involved because the new trend that became all the range within that year was, ‘Faux Painting’, where people used garbage bags, plastic bags and sponges. Who would have thought!!
These were the results:
The important thing though, was that all the colours flowed nicely from room to room.
In fact, I enjoyed the process of making that house my home through colour and décor SO much that I decided to go back to school to become an Interior Decorator.
This meant 3 years of night school since work at my gas station began at 6 am every day, but to be totally honest, it didn’t matter how many assignments I had to get done or even how sleep deprived I was. I loved every all-nighter and was ecstatic to have finally found something I was passionate about.
I’ll give you one guess on what I enjoyed most about the course. You guessed right if you said COLOUR, because it sure wasn’t renderings and auto-cad. I’ll leave that to Interior Designers.
As much as anyone could love the smell of gasoline, the pumps at the station just couldn’t compete with the promise of what I was learning how to do. My life was now filled with infinite possibility. I was learning about doing work that filled my heart and uplifted my soul.
Finally, at the age of 40, I packed in the security, stability and sleepless nights of my gas station to follow my new love into the world of colour and décor to create beautiful, blissful spaces.
I was brimming with excitement to help friends, family and clients turn their houses and offices into the gorgeous, rejuvenating homes of their dreams.
For the past 15 years, I’ve been doing just that and providing dedicated services as a:
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